In the second episode of Jay Bakker’s serial documentary One Punk Under God, Jay dealt with his growing conviction that gay and lesbian Christians are worthy children of God.
Perhaps what made this episode so startling to me is that unlike many gay-supportive churches, Jay’s approach was entirely dependent upon Scripture. If it wasn’t in The Word then he wasn’t going to preach it. Jay did his research and looked beyond the quoting of one or two verses in Romans to see history, culture, context, and he tried to understand what the author was saying and how that related to the two commandments upon which all the commandments hang.
Also of interest was that not every one in Jay’s church wanted to hear this sermon – Jay did not have the agreement of all of his board of advisors.
It isn’t hard to be courageous when everyone around you is saying, “Amen”. But Bakker faces losing his financial support and his team that is helping keep his ministry going. The next episode reveals the repercussions of his decision to support gay Christians.
We still have not heard exactly why he was dropped as a speaker for the Exodus convention last year. However his sermons from 2005 show a developing attitude about who is welcome in the church, especially one called “Holding the Door Closed” in which he discusses his meeting with a transgender woman. And in June of 2006 Jay preached at Open Door Community Church in Little Rock which further developed his thinking about gay Christians. Shortly thereafter he decided to join his mother, Tammy Faye, as a straight voices standing up for the LGBT community.
Perhaps it was the growing recognition in July 2005 that Jay’s views of Christian inclusion differed sharply from those of Exodus and the ex/anti-gay movement that caused him to be disinvited to the Exodus conference. It is hard to see how Exodus could accept a preacher who said the following in an interview with the New York Blade last week:
Did a specific event or person change your views on homosexuality?
I’ve had a lot of gay and lesbian friends and my mom was always supportive of the gay community. That made me look into it deeper, and my conclusion is that it’s not a sin. The major catalyst was when I was invited to speak at Open Door Church, a gay affirming church with a gay pastor. My heart went out to these Christians who felt disenfranchised by the church. That’s when I decided I couldn’t be silent and needed to take a stand on the issue.
Do you think it is possible to pray the gay away?
I think God can do anything, but that’s highly unlikely because I don’t think being gay is a sin.
I think God can do anything, but that’s highly unlikely because I don’t think being gay is a sin.
Amen, Jay! I pray that he doesn’t get bashed around too much for taking this stand, but whatever happens I give him high marks for courage, faith and love.
I’ve been watching Jay’s ministry for some time, even before his stand on gay Christians. He doesn’t seem to be radical just for the sake of turning heads, rather I would say he sincerely wants to follow Christ. This kind of fresh air is (sadly) rare in the Church, but so far Jay appears to be the real deal.
Just curious. Is there any word on how his father feels?
I guess it’s no surprise that at the message board for Jay’s church, the hottest topic is Marc’s recent message that “being gay is not a sin.” It’s at 10 pages and growing.
Predictably, our friend James Hartline is on there, spreading his usual anger and dysfunction. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t made it through the entire discussion yet, but I’ll continue to slog through. Perhaps XGW might consider doing a blog posting on this. The thread can be reached here:
https://tinyurl.com/y8ygjn
[I know how to make a tinyurl, but can someone give me advice on how to post a link? Thanks! :-)]
Darren,
I believe that the episode playing tonight (Sundance Channel) brings Jay together with his father for the first time in two years. It is also the episode that will show the fallout of Jay’s decision to defend gay Christians.
I will watch tonight to see if the two themes are related. In the past episode it was clear that his mother, Tammy Faye Messner, is very supportive of the gay community.
The Original Christopher,
I was just going to post about Jay’s message board but you beat me to it. lol!
Ya, good ol’ James spewing his usual rhetoric. I glossed over most of his posts since its just the same rant over and over again. He needs to spend that much energy in feeding and clothing the poor.
Perhaps not. It isn’t as attention getting as what he does now.
Love his belt buckle. Of course, I would notice that.
I’ve been participating in the forum at Jay’s site for a few weeks now. I’ve attempted to deal with James Hartline a bit, but geez… Poor guy.
I really think he’s just not well. I’ve never seen someone distort facts or outright lie so much to support their case. I’ve been following Jay’s ministry for quite a while, and I’m SO excited to see them get their just due.
I look forward to seeing more from EGW and Revolution. See you all in the blogosphere!
Yes David, did notice your valiant efforts. Alas, James Hartline is an individual beyond reason. Guess you already worked that one out. If anything, even engaging with him seems to provoke the very behaviour that should set off alarm bells.
James Hartline has a lifetime of mental illness behind him — all very sad, and it’s probably best to try and avoid inducing any extra burdens for him. Also not worth wasting your breath 🙂
Sadly, he also does get “used” — in the very real sense of the word — by others who mistake sheer hateful delusions with a strong personal religious belief system. People like the charming ladies (and Robert Knight) at the Worried Women of America et al. They wheel ever-reliable James out every time they want a headline or a freak show.
Oh, and welcome!
He finally became too much for the good people at Revolution. They finally shut down the thread he was ranting on about every 10 minutes.
It really is sad. He’s clearly an intelligent man – but he’s also clearly insane. I don’t really know whether it is more cruel to stop him (as long as he’s not doing real harm to others) or to encourage him.
If people like his minister would try and stop him, he would just pull away from them and there would be no mellowing influence on his life. But maybe, just maybe, trying to stop him might prevent somehthing crazy. Otherwise I fear that he might show up somewhere with an explosive or a gun or something. He’s really that unstable and motivated by rage.
On the other hand, encouraging him is pure evil.
Hi Grantdale! I haven’t seen you guys for months, I wondered what happened to you. I missed you, glad you’re back.
As this thread is appropriate as any other thread here on EGW for an open comment:
Truly and sincerely, I fondly appreciate finding EGW in 2006 and I hope I will have more uplifting discoveries in 2007.
Have a Happy New Year everyone.
We will make an exception for such a flattering post, lol. As for 2007, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
Just when I was beginning to despair of Christians ever being accepting and supportive of gays, someone like Jay Bakker comes along.
Jay’s done a really great job of standing up for his personal beliefs, regardless of the repercussions of losing funding and further support of his church. I also found it quite interesting that Jay chose to quote scripture in the Bible to show how vague and misconstrued its text relating to homosexuality can be. In the next episode, I think Jay finds out just what will happen with Revolution now that he and Amanda may be heading to head to New York where she’ll attend school. I found some clips of this Wednesday night’s new episode here:
https://tv.com/one-punk-under-god/show/66927/summary.html?tag=tabs;summary
I don’t follow too many shows on a weekly basis, but One Punk Under God has really grabbed my attention. Does anyone know if Sundance is planning a second season once the initial six episodes have aired?